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AP Technology NewsBrief at 2:25 p.m. EST

(Associated Press Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Apple CEO promises investors 'great stuff' to comeCUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) _ Apple CEO Tim Cook sought to assure shareholders Wednesday that the company is working on some "great stuff" that may help reverse a sharp decline in its stock price. True to Apple's secretive nature, Cook didn't provide any further product details during the company's annual shareholders meeting Wednesday. There has been speculation that Apple is working on an Internet-connected watch or TV, while one shareholder recommended that Apple develop a computerized bicycle. Cook, an avid bicyclist, chuckled at the suggestion, along with the rest of the audience.

Tweets allow peek at life in NKorea in real time"Hello world from comms center in (hash)Pyongyang." That Twitter missive, sent Monday from Koryolink's main service center in downtown Pyongyang using my iPhone, marked a milestone for North Korea: It was believed to be the first tweet sent from a cellphone using the country's new 3G mobile data service.

Wireless connections creep into everyday thingsBARCELONA, Spain (AP) _ A car that tells your insurance company how you're driving. A bathroom scale that lets you chart your weight on the Web. And a meter that warns your air conditioner when electricity gets more expensive. Welcome to the next phase of the wireless revolution.

Momentum grows for alternative phone system TizenBARCELONA, Spain (AP) _ The junior league of smartphone operating systems is getting more competitive. Phones from yet another contender _ Tizen _ will go on sale this year with a view to eventually competing with the industry leaders, Apple's iOS and Google's Android. For now, Tizen will compete with another newcomer, Firefox OS, as well as Microsoft's Windows Phone and a revamped BlackBerry operating system.

Clearwire to tap into $80M financing from SprintWireless network operator Clearwire said Wednesday that it will tap into $80 million in financing from Sprint, putting a hurdle in the way of a possible sale to Dish. Clearwire has received buyout offers from both Sprint and Dish, a satellite TV provider. In December, it agreed to a deal with Sprint Nextel Corp. that offered $2.2 billion for the 49 percent of Clearwire that Sprint doesn't already own. Then Dish Network Corp. bid about $5.15 billion for Clearwire in January.

Report: Stuxnet cyberweapon older than believedLONDON (AP) _ The sophisticated cyberweapon which targeted an Iranian nuclear plant is older than previously believed, an anti-virus company said Tuesday, peeling back another layer of mystery on a series of attacks attributed by many to U.S. and Israeli intelligence. The Stuxnet worm, aimed at the centrifuges in Iran's Natanz plant, transformed the cybersecurity field because it was the first known computer attack specifically designed to cause physical damage. The precise origins of the worm remain unclear, but until now the earliest samples of Stuxnet had been dated to 2009, and The New York Times _ in the fullest account of the attack published so far _ traced the origins of the top-secret program back to 2006.

World's postal services struggle with lower demandOTAKI, New Zealand (AP) _ Sandra Vidulich is so excited about the leather boots she ordered through Amazon that she rips open the box in front of the postman and tries them on. "I looove them," she declares, as the driveway at her tree-lined home in rural New Zealand briefly becomes a catwalk. "They're cool."
Apple to hand out iTunes credits in settlementSAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) _ Apple has agreed to give more than $100 million in iTunes store credits to settle a lawsuit alleging that the iPhone and iPad maker improperly charged kids for playing games on their mobile devices. The 2-year-old case centers on allegations that Apple didn't create adequate parental controls to prevent children from buying extra features while playing free games on iPhones and iPads in 2010 and 2011. Parents who filed the lawsuit in 2011 said they didn't realize their children were racking up the charges until they received bills or other notifications after the purchases were made. The games that had been downloaded were designed for kids as young as 4 years old, according to the lawsuit.

Video: Gates, Zuckerberg urge kids to codeNEW YORK (AP) _ Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter creator Jack Dorsey are among the tech luminaries appearing in a new video promoting the teaching and learning of computer coding in schools. Titled "What most schools don't teach," the video released online Tuesday begins with Zuckerberg, Gates and other tech icons recalling the time they got their start in coding. For some, that was in sixth grade. For others, such as Ruchi Sanghvi, Facebook's first female engineer, that happened in college. Freshman year, first semester, intro to computer science, to be exact.

NY Times, others back AP lawsuit against MeltwaterNEW YORK (AP) _ The Newspaper Association of America, the New York Times Co. and several other newspaper companies have filed papers in support of a lawsuit filed by The Associated Press against Meltwater, a company that monitors the media for corporate customers. The AP sued Meltwater U.S. Holdings Inc. and its Meltwater News Service in U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Manhattan last February, alleging that the company copies AP content and sells it to clients without paying AP licensing fees.

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